Failover Cluster Core Resources Test

A cluster requires that a set of resources be online in order to operate. These resources are called the core resources, and consist of:

  • An IP Address resource, an IPv6 Address resource, and/or an IPv6 Tunnel Address resource that provides the cluster IP address.

  • A Network Name resource that provides the cluster name. This resource depends on the IP Address resource, IPv6 Address resource, and/or IPv6 Tunnel Address resource to create a failover cluster instance.

  • A quorum resource that ensures cluster integrity and the persistence of accurate state information.

The core resources by default, reside in a single group called the cluster group. The cluster group is created automatically during cluster setup.

If the core resources cannot be brought online, the cluster will not form and no resources in any group will be online. In other words, if the core resources take too long to be available or if the core resources frequently goes offline, then it means that the entire cluster group is failing frequently causing inconvenience to the users using the cluster. Administrators should therefore, continuously keep track on the current state of the core resources to proactively detect any abnormalities with respect the state of the core resources. The Failover Cluster Core Resources helps administrators in this regard.

This test auto-discovers the core resources of a cluster group and reports the current state of each core resource. This way, administrators may proactively be alerted to abnormalities, if any.

Target of the test : A node in a Windows cluster

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each core resource of the cluster group

Parameter Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed

Host

The host for which the test is to be configured.

Port

The port at which the specified host listens. By default, this is Null.

DD frequency

Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD Frequency.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Core resource status

Indicates the current state of this core resource.

 

The values that this measure can report and the states they indicate have been listed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Online 100
Online Pending 90
Inherited 80
Initializing 70
Pending 60
Offline Pending 50
Unknown 40
Offline 20
Failed 0

Note:

By default, this measure can report the States mentioned above while indicating the current state of each core resource. However, the graph of this measure is indicated using the numeric equivalents.

The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the owner node, the type of the core resource and the cluster group.